State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs speaks with reporters following a rally at 1199/SEIU headquarters in Albany Wednesday October 6, 2010. He is urging Democrats to vote on Election Day. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs speaks with reporters following a rally at 1199/SEIU headquarters in Albany Wednesday October 6, 2010. He is urging Democrats to vote on Election Day. (John Carl D'Annibale ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs says getting out the Democratic vote on Election Day is important. He is speaking after a rally at SEIU headquarters in Albany Wednesday October 6, 2010. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union) less

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs says getting out the Democratic vote on Election Day is important. He is speaking after a rally at SEIU headquarters in Albany Wednesday October 6, 2010. (John Carl ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

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New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, speaking in New York City earlier this week, received the Business Council endorsement on Wednesday. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Image

New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo, speaking in New York City earlier this week, received the Business Council endorsement on Wednesday. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Image

Wednesday's announcement marked the first time the council has made a gubernatorial endorsement in recent memory. "We need intelligent, experienced and forceful leadership in Albany" to enact promised fiscal reforms that "too often ... have fallen on deaf ears back at the Capitol," President Ken Adams said in explaining the decision.

"Andrew Cuomo has embraced many of the reforms that the Business Council has supported for years," he said. The endorsement follows the council's convention last week in Bolton Landing, where Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, the GOP candidate, outlined his economic vision, but made national news for getting into a heated confrontation with New York Post journalist Fred Dicker.

Cuomo did not attend the conference.

Paladino's campaign said in a statement that it hadn't expected to receive the endorsement. Also, "the group is made up of small business leaders, but also big business lobbyists, trade associations and other Albany insiders," according to a statement from Paladino campaign manager Michael Caputo. "That's a mixed bag for a Buffalo builder who's calling for a total overhaul of Albany."

Paladino held a rally Wednesday in Buffalo designed to show he has bipartisan support. A group of enrolled Democratic supporters -- chaired by his wife, Cathy -- attempted to broaden the appeal of a candidate who has so far succeeded in igniting a conservative base.

But the Business Council endorsement bolstered Cuomo's central argument against Paladino: that he is not competent to be governor. In the week since Paladino's encounter with Dicker, Cuomo's campaign released a television advertisement saying Paladino has "no plan, no experience, and his anger is not a governing strategy."

But Paladino has remained on the offensive. On Tuesday, he called Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver a "criminal." During a Wednesday-morning appearance on Fox News, Paladino said the attacks on him were engineered by political insiders.

"That's the way these people there in power in Albany want to portray me or define me right now," he said. "I'm not going to be politically correct. Yes, I am bringing a whole different view of things for the people. The people are standing with me on that. They want somebody who is going to confront these demons, and I am the type of person that will confront them. I'm not going to let them get away with this stuff anymore."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party apparatus -- machinery that Cuomo had seemed at times to hold at arm's length since he seized the mantle of a "New Democratic Party" in May -- kicked into gear behind him.

Democratic State Chairman Jay Jacobs rallied around 100 loyal partisans at a new headquarters in the offices of SEIU/1199, the health care workers union that -- among other battles -- has fought attempts to change the costly Medicaid program. SEIU's members will conduct door-to-door canvassing, which party leaders said was more necessary since Paladino defeated the more sedate Rick Lazio in a GOP primary.

"That's what's going to make the difference in this election: whether our Democrats actually come out," Jacobs told the crowd. "But when you're out there in the streets on a rainy day like today, in the cold, and knocking on doors or manning those phone banks, talking to voters and sometimes getting push back ... I want you to remember why you're doing it: You're doing it for the working people in this state."

Jimmy Vielkind can be reached at 454-5081 or jvielkind@timesunion.com.